Guys, I have a confession…I’m a bad friend. I don’t mean to be, but it seems like often the everyday details of life get in the way and distract me from the people that mean the most to me.

Why this guilt? I haven’t yet posted about my friend Lisa’s awesome book, which she was cool enough to send me months and months ago.  I got it right as I was moving apartments, then the cat drama happened, then all of the other drama of the last few months…you get the picture. Bad excuses, all of them. Every time I thought of it, I wanted to do a whole post, rather than just adding it to In My Bookbag.

So here it is! As you can see from the cover, it’s called Leonard & the Telescopic Trachea. Lisa wrote the text, and the art was done by Imin Yeh. It tells the story of Leonard, the lone giraffe among many other animals. Leonard has always felt like an outcast, because he is the only one of his kind and nobody else has a long neck like his. In the end, he learns that the same things that set us apart makes us special and valuable to others.

The book itself is rather hip. More difficult words are printed in bold, and there’s an interactive glossary for kids to look up the terms and write sample sentences using those terms. The back also features the illustrations from the story in black and white, for the kids to color on their own. As you can see, these are quite snazzy art pieces in and of themselves.

I’m really proud of Lisa for putting together this adorable book, and I can’t wait to see what else she’ll write in the future. She’s currently a graduate student in English at Cal State Long Beach.

If you want to snag a copy for yourself, they’re available HERE.